Sermon's Title: Excellence of Allah's Sharia

Sermon's Title: Excellence of Allah's Sharia

Themes of the Sermon:

1.     Manifestations of Allah's Perfection in His created beings.

2.     Perfection of Allah's Sharia.

3.     People attitudes towards Allah's Sharia.

4.     What do they criticize Allah's Sharia for?

5.     Islamic rulings reflect the beauty and perfection of Allah's Sharia.

6.     The importance that a Muslim in his religion.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds, and may Allah exalt and send peace to the best of all messengers and prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.

Dear Fellow Muslims,

Fear Allah and be mindful towards Him in your privacy and solitude. Allah says: “O You who believe, fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.”

Dear Fellow Muslim,

The manifestations of Allah's Perfection and the proofs that He is the Only One worthy of praise in this universe are countless. The universe is full with signs of His Power, Knowledge, Wisdom, Mercy, Benevolence, Courteousness, Majesty, Greatness, and Glory.

Ponder over the magnificence of the sky and how the stars and planets run according to a perfect balance and subjected to fine-tuned physical constants. Contemplate also about the marvelous creation of the earth; how Allah fixed mountains in it, spread out plains in it, and created seas in it, with all its wonders, characteristics and benefits. How water vapors to form clouds that wind carry to barren lands, where rain comes down on people who are in desperate need of water. Thus, Allah gives water to these people and their mounts out of His Bounty. This clearly shows Allah's Mercy, Care, Benevolence, Bounty, Greatness, Knowledge and Wisdom.

And you, as a human being, should also ponder over your own body; think of the senses with which you can see, listen and feel, and your body organs which allow you to survive. You do not know how these organs work; your heart ceaselessly beats, your lungs breathe in and out, and so do all other organs such as the liver, the intestines and the brain. All these organs do not require your will to work. Has their mechanism of work been left to you; you would violate it and thus destroy yourself. But Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Magnificent, the All-Powerful and the All-knowledgeable, manages all this for you and so manages all your affairs.

This is our Lord; Allah, Glory be to Him, Who created all this with perfection, then look again to His creation: Can you see any rifts? Then look again and yet again, your sight will return to you in a state of humiliation and worn out.

This is our Lord; Allah (ﷻ) to Him belongs the most Perfect Attributes. He is good and accepts only what is good. He is al-Quddus (the One who is free of deficiencies), as-Salam (the Granter of Safety). As all His Attributes are perfect, His commands, legislations, and rulings are also perfect and complete and do not include any imperfection whatsoever.

When our Lord commands us to do something, He only commands us to do that which is the best, and when He prohibits something, He only prohibits evil and harmful matters. His Sharia is perfect, complete and good.

Having seen many of signs in Allah's creation that attest to the perfection of His Attributes, some humans today, out of their ignorance, have deviated from Allah's Sharia and His rulings because these rulings contradict their poor minds, perspectives, whims and desires.

These people criticize Allah's Sharia for the good things it approves, despite that they are agreed upon by all people of pure dispositions. And they also criticize the Sharia for prohibiting bad things, which all people of sound judgment disapprove. These criticizers – of ill disposition - oppose Islam because it does not follow their deviated desires: “And if the truth had been in accordance with their desires, verily, the heavens and the earth, and whosoever is therein would have been corrupted!”

Afterwards, these people are divided into different groups: some of them declare their disbelief in Allah, the Almighty, and refuse to follow Islam; another group pretends to accept Islam, but they restrict it to mosques only arguing that religion is a relationship between man and Allah only and has nothing to  do with public life; a third group contends that Islam was valid for an age other than ours; a fourth group attempts to interpret revelation according to their contemporary taste, not bounded by the understanding of the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions; and many other groups whose arguments are all based on refusing Allah as the only God, Islam as the only acceptable religion, and Muhammad (ﷺ) as the Messenger of Allah.

I wonder, what do they criticize Allah's Sharia for?

Do they criticize the Sharia for commanding people to direct themselves towards Him and worshiping Him alone? Isn't He the Only One worthy to be worshipped? Is there anyone else worthy to be worshipped? Is there anyone else who can respond to people's supplications? Is there anyone else worthy of praise and glorification like Him? Is it better to worship the Most Praised God, Allah, or to worship created creatures, which is in essence a form of worship of one's own whims and the Devil?

Do they criticize the Sharia for commanding people to obey Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and follow his Sunnah? Do you know someone better than Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)? May my parents be ransomed for him! Have you seen any human being whose morals and manners are more perfect than him, whose heart is softer than him, whose actions are better than him, whose reason and wisdom are sounder than him, whose devotion and fear of Allah are more perfect than him, or his character is better than him?!

I wonder, why do you criticize those who follow his Sunnah? Is it better to follow Prophet Muhammad's (ﷺ) Sunnah or to follow deviant desires and conflicting opinions?

What do they criticize Allah's Sharia for?

Do they criticize it for encouraging people to do good deeds and have good relations with other people? Or do they criticize it for commanding people to enjoin justice, kindness and doing of good to relatives and for commanding the rich to give a specified share of their wealth to the poor? Are these Divine commands better or the human-made judgments that are not based on mercy and hence contribute to enrichment of the rich and deprivation of the poor?

Do they criticize the Sharia for giving man his due share and woman her due share and differentiating between them only in accordance with creation, physical nature and role, as He (ﷻ) is the best knower of what He has created? Is this better or the commissioning woman to perform the duties of man, by obligating her to carry out hard works of man on the pretext of equality? Is your judgment better or that of the Most Knowing and Most Merciful, Who honored woman with a father and a husband, obliged them to spend and take care of her, and prohibited them from wronging or belittling her, as she is a protected and honored being? He (ﷻ) made man the guardian and the manager of the family, exactly as every institution has a manager. O people of sound reason, where did the reasoning disappear?

Do they criticize the Sharia for prohibiting fornication and sodomy? These are shameful and immoral acts which people of sound disposition disdain even to speak about, not to mention the fact of committing them. Meanwhile, the Sharia encourages people to lawfully marry and live together in good companionship. Is your judgment, which considers these immoral acts as acts of goodness and freedom and denounces marriage and makes it very difficult in a way that allows fornication and abortion to spread, better or the judgment of al-Quddus (the One who is free of deficiencies), as-Salam (the Granter of Safety), Who does not approve immoral and shameful acts, encourages and accepts good acts and facilitates their means, promotes good families, preserves fetuses and lineages?

What do they criticize Allah's Sharia for?

Do they criticize Sharia for prohibiting consumption of intoxicants, such as wine and narcotics, to preserve man's mind and consciousness, to honor his dignity and protect his health? Is this judgment better or that which lets man spoil his self, mind and health on the pretext of freedom?

What do they criticize Allah's Sharia for?

Do they criticize Sharia for legislating Hudud (punishments), such as Qisas (retribution)? Would it be better for people to let someone to live after having deliberately killed another human being? Would it be better to let a killer go free so that there would be great number of criminals who shed people's blood and terrorize them or there would be heirs of the person who was murdered who reciprocate to this murder with killing the killer or any of his close relatives and hence a cycle of vicious murder? Would that be better or killing this criminal in retribution? Cannot you see mercy and wisdom in legislating this punishment? This applies also to chopping hand for robbery, lashing for adultery or slander, and all other punishments prescribed by the All-Wise and Well-Acquainted with all things.

Do they criticize the Sharia for commanding Muslims to fight Allah's enemies, repel their aggression, have authority over disbelievers and end their temptations in order to protect this great religion, make the Word of Allah superior to any other deviant religion or thought? This is perfection and wisdom and the law of reason and innate disposition. Would fighting be good for protecting land and honor and not for preserving one's religion?

So blessed be Allah, the Best of judges.

May Allah make us blessed with the Holy Qur'an and benefit us with its verses and best remembrance of Allah. Having said so, I ask Allah forgiveness for myself, you and all Muslims for every sin. So, ask Him for forgiveness for He is the Ever-Forgiving and the Most Merciful.

Second part of the sermon

All praise is due to Allah and may Allah exalt and send peace to Allah's messenger, his household, companions and all those who follow him.

O servants of Allah! Whenever innate disposition is pure and minds are sound and lofty, they would find nothing more perfect than Allah's Sharia: “And who is better in judgment than Allah for a people who have firm Faith.”

All these Islamic legislations, which are argued by the ignorant disbelievers to be allegations against Islam, are in fact the best evidence of its veracity and beauty. They are further a source of pride for Muslims, in which they take pride over all other religions.

This is why when the great companion of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), Abu Al-ʿAlaa al-Hadrami (t), went to the king of Bahrain, al-Mundhir ibn Sawa, he called him to Islam and said to him: “This is the unlettered Prophet, about whom, I swear, no man of sound reason can say: 'I wish that something he orders would have been prohibited, or something he prohibits would have been ordered. Or I wish that he would be a more pardoning or punishing person. All these things made by him correspond to the sound judgment of people of reason.”

So, rejoice and take pride in your religion, O servant of Allah! Allah has bestowed upon you a favor that He made you a servant to Him alone, sent down to you the best rulings and legislations and sent the best of all people as messenger to you and made him your role model and example.

And what increased me in honor, glory and pride,
that I almost stepped over the stars,

Is me being included in your saying "My slaves"
and that You made Ahmad my Prophet (ﷺ)

O Allah! Exalt and send peace to our Prophet Muḥammad, and on all his household and companions.

O Allah! Help us and do not help others against us; support us and do not support others against us; plan for us and do not plan against us; guide us and make guidance easy for us, and help us against those who wrong us. O Allah! Guide our leader to that which pleases You, direct him to righteous and good deeds. “Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”

O Servants of Allah! Remember Allah constantly and exalt Him morning and evening. And the last thing I say is: "All praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds!